[buss]

> Keep in mind, for a human mission, you want to minimize time, rather than deltaV. Gravity assists will take a lot of time, as you spend a lot of time waiting for the encounter.

True, but we could throw the big ship with all the supplies into a flight path that gains a lot of momentum around the inner planets and intercept it with a much smaller craft only loaded with enough fuel to get the astronauts to the transit ship (and back, if necessary).